Lord Sugar's awkward faux pas during One Show interview

This year’s bunch of Apprentice contestants might want to leave anything too revealing at home when they pack their suitcases for their extended stay in a swanky London townhouse.

Lord Sugar has been criticised for comments he made on last night’s One Show, when he appeared to suggest that he’d be more likely to hire a tattooed man that a tattooed woman.

Ohhhh dear.

“First of all, one has to be awfully careful about saying why you’re not gonna employ someone and why you won’t,” the business guru said cagily when asked about taking on staff with body art.

“But the fact is, is that, if someone came into my office as the receptionist of one of my tower blocks, to be sitting in the reception in a marble, beautiful marble place and her whole face is tattooed from top to bottom – you can imagine…

Hmmm… too much? All that marble, we mean.

“I would have to say [in the interview], psychologically, one of your little punch lines there, “What are you thinking?”. [I would tell them] “Could you come back next week and we will have a think about it!”

Then dropping the bombshell, the Amstrad head blathered: “Men obviously who come to work they’ve got suits on. They’re covered up. Ladies, I dunno.”

Um, totally naked, obviously.

Some viewers were understandably miffed by Lord Sugar’s comments, with one watcher saying: “Alan Sugar . Shaking my head. Ladies with tattoos …he does not approve.”

“Alan Sugar is being so pathetic about people with tattoos. @BBCOne It’s actually cringe worthy to watch” added another.

Indeed, Lord Sugar did seem far from his usual confident self when answering the fairly innocuous question.

Could it be that he’s hiding a secret Amstrad tattoo under his business suit somewhere?

As Matt Baker says in the awkward interview, we’ll leave it there.